Unpacking and representing pre-service teachers’ intersectional language teacher identities through creating multimodal identity texts

Abstract

This study examines the experiences of seven pre-service world language teachers who created multimodal identity texts as part of a year-long methods course designed to prepare them to teach diverse learners. We collected and analyzed qualitative data such as teacher-generated artifacts, written reflections, recordings of discussions, and fieldnotes. Our findings revealed that multimodal identity text creation enabled pre-service teachers to explore, unpack, and represent their intersectional language teacher identities by leveraging multilingual and multimodal resources. In these texts, they narrated the pivotal educational moments and figures that shaped their language teacher identities and revealed their visions and commitments as future language teachers, (re)imagining a form of language education in which children from diverse backgrounds can feel recognised, affirmed, and celebrated. Altogether, creating multimodal identity texts brought the teachers’ intersectional identities and rich multilingual and multimodal assets to the surface and involved them in deeper critical reflection on the cultural, linguistic, educational, and ideological experiences that shaped who they are. This study underscores the importance of integrating identity work into teacher education programmes by creating opportunities for pre-service teachers to acknowledge their identities and resources through the creation of multimodal identity texts.